373-TL63 


CO  P 


.  X> 


Lincolniana* 


EX  LIBRIS 


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UNIVERSITY    OF    IlLINOtf  LIBRARY    AT    URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 


JAN  2  2 


FEB  04  mi 


"LI  B  RAR.Y 

OF   THE 
UN  IVER.SITY 
OF    ILLINOIS 

973.7LG3 


Cop.E 


Lincolniana, 


MCOLMANA  BOOK  PLATE 


Copyright  J9J3, 

by 
H,  Alfred  Fowler, 


Preface. 

c^r> .  c< 

It  was  originally  intended  to  publish  this  work 
under  the  title  "Lincolniana  Book-plates,"  making 
of  it  a  little  brochure  of  interest  to  collectors  of  book- 
plates, depicting  the  several  book-plates  bearing  port- 
;  raits  of  Lincoln  or  other  designs  appropriate  for  book- 
*  plates  to  be  used  in  books  relating  to  him* 

But  it  was  found  impossible  to  adequately  des- 
cribe the  book-plates  without  going  into  the  details 
of  the  collections  they  were  used  to  mark;  &  these 
details  were  found  to  be  of  as  much  if  not  more  int- 
erest than  the  book-plates  themselves* 

And  so  it  was  decided  to  turn  the  project  into 
a  little  volume  on  Lincolniana;  which  has  been 
done,  with  the  kind  assistance  of  Messrs*  Charles 
W*  McLellan,  Judd  Stewart  and  J*  B*  Oakleaf,  all 
veteran  collectors  of  Lincolniana,  who  have  each 
contributed  a  little  paper  on  the  subject* 

There  has  been  no  effort  to  cover  the  field  of 
"Lincolniana  book-plates;"  the  few  illustrations  ap- 
pearing having  been  chosen  simply  with  a  view  to 
appropriate  decoration,  which  will  account  for  the 
apparent,  but  thus  not  real  neglect  of  many  inter- 
esting Lincolniana  book-plates*  H*  A*  F* 


Collectors  and  Collecting* 

Since  what  follows  is  written  solely  to  oblige 
a  man  with  a  hobby,  I  claim  the  privilege  of  sim- 
ply suggesting  instead  of  detailing  my  ideas  and, 
further,  the  privilege  of  starting  at  the  end  of  the 
story  instead  of  at  the  beginning* 

The  book-plate  for  my  Lincoln  library  is  the 
final  outcome  of  gratifying  an  inherited  desire  for 
collecting,  given  to  me,  I  am  sure,  by  my  dear  old 
mother  who  was  always  saving  papers  or  clippings 
of  interest*  From  her  also  I  think  that  I  inherited 
the  desire  to  give  pleasure  to  others  (an  inheritance 
that  has  not  been  cultivated  beyond  a  reasonable 
measure,  however)  and  so  I  comply  with  a  brother 
hobbyist's  request  for  a  few  words  to  accompany 
my  Lincoln  book-plate* 

In  August  J888,  desiring  to  present  to  my  em- 
ployer, August  R*  Meyer  of  Kansas  City,  a  book 
that  would  be  unique  and  "different,"  I  started  to 
extra-illustrate  Arnold's  "Life  of  Lincoln,"  think- 
ing that  I  would  give  it  to  him  Christmas,  but,  be- 
coming interested,  I  deferred  giving  it  until  it  was 
as  complete  as  my  crude  notions  demanded* 

In  J889 1  endeavored  to  complete  that  task  but 


could  find  no  satisfactory  portrait  of  General  Jim 
Lane  of  Kansas*  Finally,  in  1890,  the  volumes  were 
completed  and  save  a  mistake  made  by  the  binder 
the  work  was  satisfactory  and  the  presentation  made 
on  Christmas  Day  of  that  year*  My  interest  in  Lin- 
coln had  been  aroused  and  I  started  out  "to  get,  to 
have,  and  to  hold"  all  I  could  gather  in  the  way  of 
books  and  pamphlets  about  him*  t 

Being  transferred,  in  J90J,  from  the  West  to 
the  East  where  second-hand  book-stores  "do  abound 
more  abundantly"  I  found  myself  led  on  &  on  buy- 
ing books,  pamphlets,  medals,  sheet  music,  photo- 
graphs, autograph  letters,  anything  and  everything 
to  gratify  the  one  desire  to  have  and  to  own  all  that 
was  possible  for  man  to  possess  regarding  the  most 
heroic  figure  of  the  age*  When  I  found  it  necessary, 
in  order  to  effect  an  exchange  with  a  State  Histor- 
ical Society,  to  have  a  bill  passed  by  the  legislature 
of  the  state,  I,  with  the  help  of  good  friends,  pro- 
ceeded to  have  the  bill  passed  and  added  one  more 
item  to  my  collection* 

Meeting,  by  chance  on  a  train,  a  man  who 
owned  a  pamphlet  wanted  I  spent  three  years  in  an 
effort  to  obtain  and  preserve  the  printed  copy  of  a 
sermon  on  Lincoln's  death*  To  obtain  a  play  print- 


ed  in  West  Creek,  Virginia,  in  J867, 1  located  the 
author  in  Cheyenne,  Wyoming,  and  finally  got  the 
volume*  I  have  called  into  service,  not  once  but 
many  times,  the  Consular  Service  of  the  United 
States  in  securing  foreign  items  of  interest*  And  now 
that  I  publish  the  secret,  my  friendly  competitors 
who  see  this  will  probably  "make  it  hot"  for  U*  S* 
Consuls* 

But,  after  all,  the  pleasure  of  pursuit  and  ac- 
quisition is  of  no  worth  compared  to  the  friendship 
formed  through  my  collecting*  I  cannot  name  one 
without  offending  others  but  what  a  pleasure  it  is 
to  receive,  some  morning  when  business  is  all  as- 
kew, a  letter  from  a  "hated  rival"  congratulating 
one  on  a  new  acquisition  or,  as  sometimes  happens, 
finding  in  the  mail  with  the  compliments  of  some 
other  collector  ("hated  rival")  an  item  that  you 
want  and  have  despaired  of  gettingl 

My  advice,  to  my  sons  and  to  all  of  the  sons 
of  men,  is  COLLECT*  Be  a  collector!  One  man  col- 
lected playing  cards;  picking  cards  up  on  the  street, 
he  was  trying  to  collect  a  complete  deck*  He  still 
lacked  the  deuce  of  hearts  and  the  five  of  diamonds 
when  I  last  heard  of  his  collection  but  I  hope,  and 
am  sure  that  all  collectors  join  me  in  hope*  that  he 


will  find  these  two  cards,  face  up,  some  morning 
as  he  starts  downtown*  When  he  does  find  them 
he  will  sigh  to  think  that  his  collection  is  complete 
but  will  go  on  collecting  something  else  and  will  be 
as  happy  as  before* 

Judd  Stewart* 


Lincolniana* 

Walking  up  Broadway  one  evening  in  the  80's 
with  my  son,  we  were  tempted  by  a  flaring  light 
over  a  book-stand  to  examine  the  volumes  offered* 
Among  them  we  discovered  the  three  volume  life 
of  Lincoln  by  William  H*  Herndon*  I  had  known 
both  Mr*  Lincoln  and  Mr*  Herndon  in  the  late  50's 
when  I  lived  in  Springfield*  Illinois;  had  transacted 
business  with  Mr*  Lincoln  over  the  counter  of  the 
Ridgely  Bank  where  I  was  clerk;  had  greeted  him 
constantly  at  the  little  social  gatherings  at  his  home 
and  at  the  homes  of  others;  and  had  had  frequent 
conversations  with  Mr*  Herndon  on  the  two  sub- 
jects then  interesting  to  him:  "Theodore  Parker  & 
his  Beliefs"  and  "Temperance*" 

The  purchase  of  these  books  that  evening  was 
the  commencement  of  my  interest  in  Lincolniana* 
although  it  was  not  until  the  year  1900  that  I  be- 
gan collecting  in  earnest*  For  some  time  I  confined 
myself  to  engravings  and  lithographs,  which  seem- 
ed innumerable  and  embraced  the  patriotic  &  car- 
icature pictures  of  the  Qvil  War* 

Through  Mr*  A*  S*  Clark*  then  in  Fulton 
Street,  I  became  interested  in  magazine  articles  on 


Lincoln  and  collected  a  fine  lot  which  I  had  nicely 
bound*  From  Mr*  Clark  I  also  obtained  Judge  Fish's 
first  Bibliography  of  Lincoln  Literature,  and  with 
this  as  a  guide  I  then  began  the  effort  to  complete 
his  list*  Judge  Fish  had  collected  such  a  number  of 
books  and  pamphlets  as  to  make  him  among  the 
first  of  our  collectors*  Later  I  met  Major  William  H* 
Lambert  and  Mr*  Judd  Stewart,  and  the  formation 
of  the  Lincoln  Fellowship  brought  us  closer  togeth- 
er* and  happily  joined  by  Mr*  J*  B*  Oakleaf,  we 
were  soon  engaged  in  an  endeavor  to  obtain  every 
thing  relating  to  Lincoln,  helping  one  another  until 
our  accumulations  reached  the  thousands* 

During  all  this  time  the  letters*  documents  & 
those  tiny  cards  which  Mr*  Lincoln  constantly  used 
to  convey  his  messages*  were  of  great  interest  to  me 
as  expressing  the  development  of  the  life  of  this  great 
man*  The  earliest  specimen  of  his  writing  that  I  ob- 
tained was  a  page  of  his  copy-book  written  in  1826* 
when  he  was  17  years  of  age;  and  from  J838  to 
1865*  twenty-seven  years,  I  have  something  writ- 
ten by  him  each  year  excepting  the  year  J854*  To- 
gether with  these  I  have  accumulated  quite  an  inter- 
esting collection  of  letters  written  to  Mr*  Lincoln  or 
about  him,  and  many  of  these  show  intimately  the 


state  of  the  politics  of  the /time* 

Accompanying  a  letter  from  Mr*  Lincoln  to  J* 
Gillespie,  dated  May  19th,  J849,  showing  his  desire 
for  the  Commissionership  of  the  General  Land  Office, 
is  the  following  letter  from  E*  B*  Washburne  to 
Caleb  B*  Smith,  who  was  later  in  Lincoln's  cabinet: 
"Galena,  Illinois,  May  2J,  J849* 

My  dear  Sir:  I  beg  leave  to  trouble  you  again 
for  a  moment*  It  is  the  plan  of  the  Baker  (Gen*  E* 
D*  Baker  of  Ball  Bluff  fame)  Clique  to  get  Lincoln 
into  the  Commissionership  of  the  General  Land  Of- 
fice by  having  Young  resign  in  his  favor*  I  was 
favourable  to  Lincoln  until  he  proved  himself  to  be 
a  mere  catspaw  and  tool  of  Baker,  and  until  the 
Southern  part  of  the  state  had  got  both  tl\e  Mar- 
shall and  Dist*,  Atty*  We  think  now  if  anything 
else  is  coming  to  this  state,  the  North  should  have 
it*  All  the  Whig  strength  is  in  the  North  and  all  the 
offices  heretofore  have  gone  down  into  the  locof oco 
region* 

If  Baker  should  succeed  in  getting  Lincoln  in, 
it  will  be  a  great  triumph  for  him* 

We  have  got  up  papers  here,  Baker's  own 
residence,  signed  by  all  our  leading  Whigs  and  the 
members  of  the  bar  here  without  distinction  of  party, 


i\ 

and  our  own  Bar  is  only  second  to  the  Chicago 
Bar,  showing  how  Butterfield  ( Juston  B*,  who  ob- 
tained the  position)  stands  and  showing  Baker  to 
be  what  he  is,  a  liar  and  calumniator* 

Truly,  Your  Friend, 
Hon.  C  B.  Smith.  E.  B.  Washburne." 

In  a  letter  written  to  Dr.  Benjamin  C  Lundy, 
dated  Springfield,  Illinois,  August  5, 1857,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln writes:  "You  will  have  no  trouble  to  carry 
your  county  of  Putnam,  but  you  are  (as  I  remem- 
ber) part  of  the  Peoria  Senatorial  District,  and  that 
is  close  and  questionable,  so  that  you  need  every 
vote  you  can  get  in  Putnam/' 

With  this  letter,  showing  Lincoln's  depend- 
ence upon  him  to  help  organize  Putnam  County  for 
the  coming  struggle,  I  have  one  from  Dr.  Lundy 
to  Wendell  Phillips,  and,  illustrating  the  ever  dev- 
eloping history  which  opens  to  the  collector,  it  is 
interesting  to  know  that  this  Dr.  Lundy  was  the 
son  of  Benjamin  Lundy  of  Baltimore,  who,  years 
before  Garrison  and  Lovejoy,  before  Seward  and 
Lincoln,  "took  up  the  cudgel  for  liberty/'  And  I  can 
not  refrain  from  quoting  further  from  a  pathetic  trib- 
ute of  the  Hon.  Victor  Murdock,  who  happened 
last  year  upon  the  neglected  grave  of  this  elder  Ben- 


' 

jamin  Lundy  in  Magnolia,  Putnam  Q>unty *  Illinois* 
Mr*  Murdock  writes,  "Benjamin  Lundy  did 
not  seek  to  identify  himself  with  a  principle  through 
a  political  candidacy;  he  did  not  risk  his  cause  to 
the  cankering  compromises  that  come  with  organ- 
ization* He  fought  alone*  In  the  wilderness  he  was 
a  voice  in  the  slow*  patient  process  of  making  paths 
straight*  Against  the  accusation  of  agitation*  dema- 
gogue and  madman;  threatened;  brutally  assaulted 
once  by  a  slave-trader  in  Baltimore;  always  in  peril* 
Lundy  fought  on*  travelling  from  place  to  place  us- 
ually afoot*  seeking  no  fame*  asking  no  favor*  as- 
piring to  no  eloquence  save  the  rude  speech  by 
which  he  might  burn  into  the  hearts  of  men  a  con- 
sciousness of  the  curse  of  slavery* 

He  was  persuasive*  And  leaving  a  trail  of  ab- 
olition newspapers  behind  him  and  a  little  groupe 
of  awakened  citizens*  he  passed  on*  from  town  to 
town*  aflame  with  the  essential  conviction  of  a  true 
democrat — the  gentle*  indomitable  belief  in  the  maj- 
ority —  of  God  and  one  —  and  at  last  he  came  here, 
to  the  little  graveyard*  obscure  as  his  grave  itself* 
He  had  no  ambition  as  we  know  the  word*  There 
was  no  white  promise  on  his  horizon*  only  the 
beckoning  obscurity  he  set  out  from*  That  engulf- 


|$  him  finally  even  to  the  memory  of  a  nation  that 
once  knew  him  well*  And  twenty  years  after  the 
world  drove  away  from  his  mound  and  began  to 
forget*  Lincoln,  with  generations  of  sorrow  shadow- 
ed in  his  eyes,  was  writing  an  emancipation  proc- 
lamation for  a  race*" 

Charles  Woodberry  McLellan* 


L 


JOSEP»BEMJAMIN 
OAKLEAF 


Collecting  Lincolniana* 

In  common  with  many  thousands  of  the  people 
of  the  United  States,  I  am  a  true  lover  of  Lincoln* 
I  can  well  remember,  as  a  boy  of  a  few  years  of 
age,  the  picture  which  hung  in  the  sitting  room  of 
my  home;  it  was  a  picture  of  Washington  &  Lin- 
coln bearing  the  inscription,  "Washington  made,  & 
Lincoln  saved  our  Country*"  My  home  town  being 
one  of  the  stations  on  the  "underground  railroad" 
and  one  of  the  strongest  abolition  towns  in  the  coun- 
try, I  heard  much  about  Lincoln  and  always  ad- 
mired the  kind  face  and  pleasing  personality  of  the 
martyred  president,  and  as  I  grew  to  manhood  the 
boyish  admiration  grew  into  adoration* 

Up  to  the  time  that  Nicolay  and  Hay  wrote 
their  biography  of  Abraham  Lincoln  I  had  read  a 
few  biographies  of  Lincoln  and,  of  course,  different 
incidents  in  the  magazines  and  newspapers,  but  the 
publication  by  Nicolay  and  Hay  was  hailed  with 
great  delight  for  much  that  was  hidden  was  brought 
out  by  them*  It  is  certainly  true  that  we  cannot  study 
the  life  of  a  great  man  unless  we  study,  at  the  same 
time,  the  events  of  the  times  in  which  that  man  lived 
and  with  which  he  was  connected,  and  I  consider 


that  the  ten  volumes  that  were  published  by  the 
Century  Company ,  the  result  of  the  minds  of  Lin- 
coln's private  secretaries,  is  a  monument  to  him  that 
is  greater  than  any  amount  of  money  could  form 
by  being  placed  in  marble  or  precious  stones* 

Having  read  in  "The  Century"  from  month 
to  month  the  life  of  Lincoln  and  of  the  men  with 
whom  he  was  connected,  when  the  last  number 
came  I  re-read  all  of  them  and,  having  taken  up  the 
law  as  my  profession  and  acquainted  myself  with 
the  annotations  in  the  text  books,  it  occurred  to  me 
that  I  would  like  to  be  the  possessor  of  all  of  the 
books  that  Nicolay  and  Hay  referred  to  in  their 
foot-notes,  for  it  seemed  to  me  that  if  they  could 
weave  such  a  splendid  history  by  the  use  of  their 
references  it  would  be  a  pleasure  to  own  such  books* 

I  thought  that  I  would  like  to  have  all  of  the 
biographies  of  Lincoln,  at  least,  and  I  then  conclud- 
ed that  a  hundred  volumes  would  probably  be  the 
extent  of  my  library*  I  began  the  collection  in  a  mod- 
est way  and  did  not  correspond  with  anyone  who 
was  collecting*  While  I  was  endeavoring  to  procure 
the  books  that  I  had  noted  others  became  known 
to  me  and  my  hundred  volumes  grew  to  four,  five 
and  even  six  hundred  and  so  on,  but  my  gala  day 


x//// 

came  at  the  close  of  the  year  J900.  It  was  while 
visiting  with  the  genial  Frank  M.  Morris,  of  Chi- 
cago, in  his  famous  book  shop,  that  he  informed  me 
that  a  man  by  the  name  of  Fish,  of  Minneapolis, 
had  compiled  a  bibliography  of  Lincoln  books*  Upon 
my  return  home  I  wrote  to  the  Hon.  Daniel  Fish 
inquiring  concerning  his  book  and  out  of  the  good- 
ness of  his  heart  he  sent  a  copy  to  me  and  then,  for 
the  first  time,  did  I  learn  of  the  extent  of  Lincoln- 
iana* If  I  had  known  how  extensive  a  complete  col- 
lection of  Lincolniana  would  be  when  I  first  began 
collecting  I  am  satisfied  that  I  would  not  have  had 
the  heart  to  begin  the  work.  But  thus  it  is  that 
where  we  are  not  allowed  to  peer  into  the  future  we 
frequently  undertake  work  and  carry  it  to  complet- 
ion where  we  should  have  been  overwhelmed  at 
the  start  had  we  realized  the  proportions  of  our  un- 
dertaking. 

My  collection  of  Lincolniana  was  known  local- 
ly and  at  one  time  I  gave  an  address  on  Lincoln 
before  one  of  our  schools  in  which  I  tendered  the 
use  of  my  library  to  anyone  who  desired  to  carry 
on  research  in  that  direction.  A  young  man  by  the 
name  of  Philip  Joseph  availed  himself  of  the  oppor- 
tunity and  delivered  an  oration  entitled  "The  Fame 


'• 

of  Abraham  Lincoln*"  As  the  paper  was  well  writ- 
ten I  had  it  published  and  sent  a  copy  to  Mr*  Fish 
who  asked  me  to  send  a  copy  to  his  good  friend 
Judd  Stewart;  this  I  did  and  in  that  way  reached 
the  heart  and  hand  of  that  genial  enthusiast* 

The  prince  of  Lincoln  collectors  passed  away 
last  summer  with  the  death  of  Major  Lambert*  His 
collection  cannot  be  duplicated*  and  now  Stewart 
stands  at  the  head  of  the  collectors  of  Lincolniana* 
a  place  that  he  well  deserves  for  he  has  always  been 
willing  to  lend  a  helping  hand  to  his  brother  col- 
lectors* Not  only  has  the  collection  of  Lincolniana 
been  a  pleasure  to  me  but  the  acquaintance  I  have 
formed  through  my  hobby  is  really  worth  to  me 
many  fold  more  than  the  collection* 

Living  in  Rock  Island  County  where  Lincoln 
was  sworn  into  the  service  of  the  United  States  as 
a  volunteer  in  the  Blackhawk  War*  &  within  sight 
of  the  village  made  famous  by  Blackhawk*  we  feel 
that  Rock  Island  County  has  had  much  to  do  with 
the  bringing  of  fame  to  Abraham  Lincoln*  It  was 
in  this  county  that  the  first  bridge  spanned  the  Miss- 
issippi and  the  company  building  the  bridge  retain- 
ed Lincoln  to  help  them  in  their  efforts  to  retain  the 
bridge  in  the  suit  brought  by  the  river-men*  It  was 


'"it/. 

at  Fort  Armstrong,  in  Rock  Island  County,  where 
Dred  Scott,  as  body-servant  of  Dr*  Emerson,  was 
stationed  for  a  number  of  years,  and  on  account  of 
Dred  Scott's  residence  here  his  test  of  citizenship 
came  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States* 

There  are  many  now  who  are  interested  in  the 
collection  of  Lincolniana  and  new  ones  coming  to 
the  front  continually  and  to  such  I  extend  the  hand 
of  Lincoln  fellowship,  with  my  heart  in  it,  knowing 
that  what  they  do  will  not  only  be  of  service  to  them- 
selves but  to  the  community  in  which  they  live,  & 
of  benefit  to  their  friends* 

In  closing  I  should  like  to  mention  all  of  those 
who  have  been  very  kind  to  me  with  my  hobby 
but  I  cannot  do  so  for  the  list  would  be  too  long: 
however,  I  must  not  close  without  mentioning  a 
few*  A  better  man  never  lived  than  Major  W*  H* 
Lambert,  who  has  now  gone  to  his  reward*  Judd 
Stewart,  I  have  already  mentioned*  Hon*  Charles 
W*  McLellan,  of  Champlain,  New  York,  was  a 
resident  of  Springfield  at  the  time  of  the  breaking 
out  of  the  war  and  on  account  of  his  leaning  toward 
the  Confederacy  left  there  and  moved  south,  but  is 
now  one  of  the  strongest  admirers  of  Lincoln*  Hon* 
Daniel  Fish,  of  Minneapolis,  I  have  had  the  pleas- 


v 

ure  of  entertaining  at  my  home  and  have  made  a 
trip  in  his  company  through  the  Lincoln  country* 
And  in  J*  W*  Burton's  home  in  Lake  Geneva  I 
have  been  entertained  and  have  had  the  pleasure  of 
seeing  his  wonderful  collection  of  Lincolniana, 

These  were  my  early  friends  in  the  beginning 
of  my  hobby  and  I  can  now  count  many  others 
who  are  near  to  me  and  who  have  reciprocated  the 
favors  which  they  say  I  have  extended  to  them* 

J.  B,  Oakleaf* 
Moline,  Dlinois, 
12,  February  1913. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOiS-URBANA 


30112003250658 


